The Executive Director, Shared Services, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs Chijioke Ugochukwu, on Tuesday in Lagos said the bank is poised to assist SMEs to establish and deepen their online visibility to grow their businesses.
Represented by the Divisional Head, Managed SMEs, Mr Osaigbovo Omorogbe, Ugochukwu said the gesture was consistent with the bank’s larger mission of making financial services easy and accessible to customers.
The director added that in pursuance of its commitment to help MSMEs build capacity, the bank recently entered into a partnership with WhoGoHost, a technology company.
“The partnership will provide value-added, significantly discounted offerings (websites and hosting) to small business owners who subscribe to the bank’s tailored SME banking products and services.
“Indeed, as an SME focused bank, we are happy to create yet again, another sustainable, low cost platform to help SMEs establish and deepen their online visibility in pursuit of sustained growth for their businesses,’’ Ugochukwu said.
Mr Toba Obaniyi, CEO, WhoGoHost, said he was delighted to partner with Fidelity Bank in assisting SMEs have online visibility to grow their businesses.
He said the partnership was tailored with support channels that would be of immense benefit to SMEs that keyed to it.
The CEO noted that having an online presence in the contemporary business environment was critical to the success of any business.
According to him, Fidelity Bank is a pacesetter in SME development because of their passion to see SMEs succeed.
He noted that the probable reason SMEs failed to take advantage of the online space was due to ignorance or the fear of being swindled.
The CEO appealed to SMEs to take advantage of the commitment and honesty in the partnership between Fidelity Bank and his company to explore the benefits of being in the online space.
“Being online is actually critical to SMEs business successes. It ensures that businesses continue to stay in business.
“We have seen companies that fail because they are driven out of business for lack of innovation,’’ Obaniyi stated.
He hoped to see more businesses in the online space in 10 years from now.
Fidelity Bank’s SME forum is held monthly to build the capacity of SMEs and to position them for global competitiveness. (NAN)
